About “Stan”

In this song, Eminem corresponds with a crazed fan who becomes increasingly unhinged as the story progresses. This is one of his best received songs of all time, even placing at #15 on VH1’s top 100 hip-hop songs of all time.

There was a verse where [Stan] got out of the water. He escaped and came to my house to kill me. Then I had to kill him first, [but] I missed him, and he was in the hospital for like 3 weeks. Then he was pissed off that I didn’t write him get well cards, so he came to kill me again, and in the last verse finally I just blew his head off.

In 2013, Eminem released a follow-up, in the form of “Bad Guy”, wherein Stan’s younger brother, Matthew, avenges his brother’s death.

Who plays Stan in this song's music video?

Devon Sawa, who also had roles in Casper, Now and Then, and Idle Hands.

Where did the name come from?

Possibly STalker fAN, but this is probably nothing but a theory.

What have the artists said about the song?

In a televised interview from 2000, Eminem explains:

“Basically it’s just about crazy fan mail that I get from people, and it’s about a kid who is really sick, you know what I’m saying? He takes everything I say literally like if I say I wanna slit my wrists then he wants to slit his wrists. He’s crazy for real, like I’m not, and it’s like everything I say he can relate to. So at the end of the song, he ends up committing suicide and driving his girlfriend off a cliff and it’s really crazy. But it’s kind of like a message to the fans to let them know that everything I say is not meant to be taken literally. Just most of the things”.

how can stan be eminem's biggest fan, if stans brother likes him more?